We Need To Talk About Machinist

I always wanted some kind of synergy between flamethrower and bioblast. For example using flamethrower after bioblast could burn the dot and inflict the total damage in one go, maybe with a bit of increased potency on top of it. It would became an aoe burst combo ^^

For AoE DPS, they really need to make Flamethrower increase in damage against targets afflicted by Bio Blaster, like, Gas them, then light them on fire; either just a pure potency increase or maybe add a Fire DoT on top of the Bio Blaster DoT

They should just give mch a raidbuff, then rdps would also be fine. It i supposed to be the selfish physranged, but that identity doesnt really work imo. Maybe just turn wildfire into its raidbuff, increases damage taken by 3% or something

I seem to do just fine as mch in most things. Aoe isnt amazing, but its not as terrible as people make it out to be.
I dont use the standard rotation tho. Mayybe the standard rotation isnt actually the best one? Maybe it gives the best burst, but for sustained damage maybe its not good. Cause in the end I end up pretty high in dps numbers wise. Even just in 710 gear.
I'll have to parse it in something higher end to see where it lands.

it's time mch is the top dps for a year or so. they've been on the bottom for years. how is your robot and turrets not out 24/7 if you're the master of machines. SE made too many mistakes with mch. sucks its my favorite class.

Honestly, I feel Machinist is ok on a casual PF level but when viewed in a high level setting, it needs adjustments. I'll outdamage most PCT and other jobs when in an usual PF of casual players but with actual high tier players that actually parse and maximize their rotations, I am usually 3rd or 4th in dps. Had a M2S clear run where I was top dps in all categories against a PCT and Samurai but they weren't really playing the jobs to their top most level. My next reclear party of people that push their jobs to the max, I was 3rd DPS behind the Viper and Reaper. As far as what needs to be done, I honestly think some potency increase would be a great start. The single damage rotation is pretty solid to me so i'd leave that alone. The AoE kit needs some adjustments badly. There's no valid reason for the auto crossbow not to have the same cd reduction that heat blast provide.

Obviously flamethrower just needs changed, but since aoe is more used in dungeons it's not the biggest concern right now for me. I just want some small damage buffs. Maybe next expac we could get our Queen turned into something that does AOE as well so it's not as awkward to pop it in trash pulls... but then it's at the point where basically the entire class is an aoe rotation...? I get it's the easiest of the rDPS classes to pick up and play right now so that goes in to it somewhat for why it's not dealing that much more damage, but when I look at some of the other DPS classes I could be playing and just gain so much more damage and party utility at the expense of not being able to run around freely in every fight...

Unless you're racing for world first or padding your numbers for imaginary leaderboards you can play what you want and not let colored graphics dictate what you have fun with.

Some changes I would love is Bioblaster having some synergy with Flamethrower. Maybe after using Bio, Flamethrower cause targets to detonate the rest of the dot plus whatever potency of the detonation. Or give Flamethrower a dot effect that lasts longer when applied to a target affected by Bioblaster.
Other than that, it's honestly really good atm.
Outside of some potency buffs to things like chainsaw and excavator as they should have higher potencies then drill or air anchor. There isn't much else they could do without reworking the class again.

I played mch as my main job in endwalker but switched to monk and viper in dawntrail. I would say mch is doing worse compared to endwalker.

Not just Machinist, but Ranged DPS as a whole. Bring it closer to melee standards, it's boring to play jobs that hit like a wet noodle.

MCH is kinda like the SMN of casters in term of performance, they must do something

I think that most of the community agree on that MCH needs some buffs or changes, or even both. But it's complicated to tell for sure what does it need exactly. A mobility skill could be a good start. And a safe buff could be attaching a debuff to Wildfire for more raid damage.

If I even learn from High orange mch's advice , it must be dnc or brd's fault for doing little damage especially toward dnc.

No seriously that's the advice I got from mch's main back in Ew.

I always thought that ranged physical dps was supposed to have less damage than other classes because they are a little support too

Machinist, Black Mage and Ninja definitely need potency buffs to be better aligned with the utility they do/don't offer. BLM needs to be doing more than PCT, which currently isn't the case. MCH should be doing more than the other PhysRng, and the same or more than the Casters (BLM excluded). Ninja just needs potency buffs in general to be better aligned with the other Melee DPS.

And then there's Dark Knight, who needs either potency buffs or their MP regeneration increased— preferably both. Having The Blackest Night tied to MP is brutal when you're needing the MP to even be on par with the damage other tanks are doing; and since the job lost a bit of MP generation in Dawntrial, it's in a weird place.

Imagine having a channeled ability called Flamethrower, and it doesn't even generate heat gauge.

one of my 99logs this tier has a green viper doing more damage than me. feels pretty bad when a below average viper does more damage than a top1% mch. dps checks so low this tier anyways so it doesn't really matter all that much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

while I do agree MCH is quite easy, managing Queen's battery for optimal rotation is a bit challenging. to me at least...

I hate heat blasts short gcd timers

The clipping is real and serious play is impossible on console

MCH seems like one of those jobs where you can basicly buff the potencies a bit and it's fine.

yes next question

Love all the additions to MCH from Dawntrails. Would love the Automata Queen to jump on target then AoE explode, like a Saibaman from DBZ

So for ranged it's biggest contribution is the buffs it offers the group. That's why they can have lower damage over all. Since machinist doesn't offer any group damage buffs it should be doing damage compatible to a lower damage melee or caster, lower because you still have the freedom of movement.

In regards to the AOEs yeah I don't see the point of the flamethrower, it's a dot that's active only if you stand still and does far less damage than it's basic AOE. I see no point to using it. At least with bio if gives simply applies the dot and you can go back to business.

MCH feels really fun to play this tier but the numbers just aren't there for it. Even with purple/orange parse this raid tier i'm usually behind in damage compared to the green parse melees like SAM and VPR. I think it could use some potency buffs for the single target scenarios. The opener is extremely satisfying and has high damage but the filler rotation is a bit weak atm. As for AOE, they should just let Queen and Air Anchor be aoe with fall off dmg. Makes no sense for one of our tools to be sitting idle most of the time during pulls. Similarly with queen, it'd give it more purpose to be used in AoE scenarios. The other comments have already mentioned regarding the flamethrower/bio-blaster so i'm not gonna add anything to it. Overall, the class feels very good, just needs some love with some QoL and potency changes.

In truth, I feel that Bard is far weaker and needs DPS changes. Deals too little personal damage

The AoE rotation needs a minor rework to work with the rest of the kit.

Queen needs to do aoe. In aoe it is practically not worth using her!

It's a PF job. Nothing else to say.

delete dismantle. and add an aoe shield which activatse an dmg-positive effect if it breaks (battery, heat, ogcd cd reduse or whatever) on a 30-60 sec base. let him be the hard hitting deffender phys range. or just simply push the dps number

REVERT WILDFIRE

Personally feel like the job needs a whole rework, or a rebranding, like instead of machinist, it was called gunner or something and instead of a multi-tool it was a bunch of different weapons. I'd be okay with either or but as far as class fantasy goes which is what I care about, I don't feel like a machinist, just feel like a person who finds junk somewhere, puts it in a box, and hurls the junk at people. Oh and I have a gun too I suppose.

Will hum 🤔 if we say compare the class to other game machinist let’s say lost ark the clasp divid to a lot more branch I would say ffxiv machinist kinda little mess need rework that my thought ingeneral 😅
Thank you for info and have good day 🍻

A buff or just making the job interesting would be nice, but also just remove that box from the hip.

MCH single target is fine. Needs a small buff %. AoE stuff could for sure use some work.

I main MCH and love it. I truly don't think it needs anything changed. A potency buff would be cool but other than that, it's in a great spot right now

There are 3 Raw DPS jobs that do not provide party buffs and 2 of them are usually the 2 strongest jobs in the game over the past years BLM an SAM and the third always the weakest in the game (beside healer and tanks) I hate the contrast and that MCH is way to easy to play (HW and SB mch fan here)

Rdps is a bait when we look at selfish dps. 2 mch with same dps can bring way different dmg to the grp. It is called optimizing 2min burst with buffs. A mch in a team with full buff is better than other ranges. Its obvious it will never compete with other roles but he has its place.

My problem with MCH isn't only the low dps, but compared to DNC and BRD he doesnt even have party buffs or gap close skill. DNC has 3 charges of gap close and party buff and BRD has party buffs... at least give MCH a gap closer or a dmg party buff Square..

They are killing some classes to mid level for no reason. they don’t need to be overpowered but at least at decent level

Flamethrower could easy be a throwable, stationary which has its own cd. Or have it be a little robot fly next to you.

i would like for them to just not have ever big cd we have be 600 potency , they should increase drill a bit keep air anchor at 600 and buff chainsaw and the follow up to chainsaw and allow wildfire to crit plz. that will bring mch up to par but not above the big melee dps jobs and probably have it be in line with drg and such in that dmg mark.

Looking at the numbers, it seems like ranged tax is dead (otherwise PCT and BLM wouldn't be doing as much as they are). It seems like we have 2 kinds of tax: Utility tax (party wide mits/heals/etc.) and "free movement" tax (the less a mech impacts your rotation, the less damage you do).

With that in mind, MCH isn't really underperforming that much. MCH (and all phys ranged) have the most "free movement" since they are almost always doing their dummy rotation unless the boss just isn't there. So the only real distinguishing factor for phys ranged is their specific mit, and Dismantle just far outclasses Improv and Minne most of the time (the issue is usually living through a hit, and Dismantle just does that far better).

I do think MCH dps should go up by 1-2% (BLM too), but even where it is now, I'd pick a MCH for prog over the other two phys ranged.

Totally weird.... I could never equip Auto-crossbow and never figured out why. It's always been greyed out. i have a level 100 Machinist and I've never used it. Thats my weird flex.

The MCH subject comes up every expansion. I don't think CU III is listening.

Will the Queen one day be useful in AoE? :(

Picto def had waaaay to much dmg from start. Literally the only usable group shield on a dd, the party dmg buff AND a heal every 120s. (Plus addle) and yet machinist is weaker? Machinist deserves better.

Think my biggest annoyance with MCH is how disjointed the AOE bit feels compared to your single target bit. Yeah, it's muddy now with all of your Heat Blast OGCDs being aoe so things like Auto Crossbow feel unnecessary. I really wish there was some cool synergies with Flamethrower or Automaton Queen but overall, the job feels really good. I do think the damage can be brought up a little bit but unless they make the useless AOE skills viable or just remove them for other things, it's always going to feel just slightly off.

Dancer:

Cant wait for 8.0 phys ranged to be released so MCH can be shat on even more now.